Spanish Beach Vocabulary

Whats your idea of the perfect vacation? For many people, its spending days on the beach, listening to the waves pounding on the sand. And if youre a beach lover, sooner or later youll find yourself where Spanish is spoken. Before you head out, here is some vocabulary you can become acquainted with.  ¡Buen viaje! la arena — sandla bahà ­a — bayel balnerario — spa, resortel baà ±ador — swimsuit, swimming trunksel bikini, el biquini — bikiniel bloque del sol, el bronceador — sunscreen, suntan lotionel buceo, bucear — diving, to diveel bungalow — bungalowel cayo — key (island)el esnorquel, el esnorkel, buceo con tubo de respiracià ³n — snorkelingla isla — islandel lago — lakenadar — to swimel ocà ©ano — oceanla ola — wavela palapa — beachside building with a grass roofla piscina — swimming poolla playa — beachel puerto — portla puesta de sol — sunsetla sombrilla — beach umbrellael surf, hacer surf — surfing, to surfel traje de baà ±o — swimsuitla vista al mar — sea or ocean view Vocabulary Notes Hacer sustantivo: It is fairly common in Spanish when importing words to use the construction hacer followed by a noun for the verb form. For example, Spanish has imported the word surf as the general word for surfing. To make the verb form, use hacer surf, literally to do surfing. Another common use of this construction can be found frequently on Web pages, where haga clic aquà ­ is used for click here. Nadar: This verb is used in a number of idiomatic phrases. One of the colorful ones is nadar y guardar la ropa, literally to swim and keep ones clothing, translated as to have it both ways or to have ones cake and eat it too. Other common phrases are nadar entre dos aguas, to sit on the fence, and nadar contra corriente, to swim against the current. Wave: When speaking of a wave in the ocean or another body of water, the word ola is used. But when speaking of a wave in hair or in the physics sense, the word onda is used. Thus a microwave oven is un horno de microondas. There is no specific verb for to wave as in waving a hand; common phrases are saludar con la mano for a simple wave of the hand or despedirse de alguià ©n con la mano for waving goodbye.